Questions and Answers (Louis Berkhof/ Manual of Christian Doctrine)

1.    How do many in our day seek to discover the essential nature of religion?
Many in our day “seek an answer to this question by studying the religions of the world and the various manifestations of religion in human life.  By a comparative study they would discover the real nature of religion, and insist on discovering a definition sufficiently broad to cover all the forms in which the religious life manifests itself among the nations of the world.” [Pg.15-16]
2.    Which is the only way in which we can learn to know this?
The bible only enables us to get a proper conception of the ideal. [Pg. 16]
3.    What terms define the religious attitude in the Old and the New Testament?
In the Old Testament the term is, the fear of the Lord.  Fear in this definition is properly defined as, the feeling of reverent regard for God, tempered with awe, and the fear of disobedience or of the punishment for disobedience. [Pg.16]
In the New Testament the gospel message is prominently in the foreground, and man’s response to the divine revelation assumes a somewhat different form, namely, the form of “faith.”  While there are other terms for religion in the New Testament, such as godliness, and godly fear, the word “faith” generally serves to describe the religious attitude of man. [Pg.16-17]